Boys' Soccer: Tigers searching for right combinations after loss to Lions

By Dylan Montz, Staff Writer dmontz@amestrib.com

Thursday

May 17, 2018 at 9:08 PMMay 17, 2018 at 10:46 PM

GILBERT — Throughout most of the season, the Gilbert boys' soccer team has been searching for the right personnel combination.

What works in some games doesn't always work in others. For a large portion of the second half against Des Moines Christian, on Thursday it looked as though the Tigers once again figured things out.

Gilbert, though, couldn't climb all the way out of the hole or sustain its potent offensive attack in a 4-2 loss to Des Moines Christian on senior night.

The Tigers now await the postseason.

“This year, it's kind of changed game-to-game which group is really working well,” Gilbert coach B.J. Jordison said. “We can't really keep the same group every time, but I think once we did, as you can see we had a lot of pressure and a lot of shots and a lot of corner kicks. But in the end, just didn't have enough.”

The Lions came out aggressively, shutting down most of what the Tigers wanted to do through the first half. They struck first when senior Ben Webster took a high ball to the ground, dribbled a few steps and sent a shot over the head of Gilbert keeper Christian Graber for a 1-0 lead.

After the first few minutes, however, the Tigers found their footing. Des Moines Christian had a 4-1 shots-on-goal advantage early, but Gilbert erased the gap and nearly struck back. Senior Jason Taylor drifted right and fired a shot for a would-be game-tying goal, but pinged off the crossbar and away from Lions keeper Josh Swanson.

“We kind of have a problem this year of not coming out right away,” junior Cael Klein said. “But once we got to the second half and got that second goal we realized that we need to get going. It's kind of been a problem this year, but we just need to work on it and get better for substate. Hopefully it's there then.”

Des Moines Christian built its lead through two goals in two minutes from sophomore Curran Ingram before Gilbert flashed its potential.

Through a large stretch of the second half, the Tigers ignited their offense largely on corner kick opportunities — they held an 11-2 advantage on the night. Junior Luke Campbell sent in a kick from the right side, which dropped in front of Klein for an easy goal to trim the deficit, 3-1.

Three minutes later, Campbell took a free kick from 30 yards out and put it in the middle of the box. Klein swiped at it, but his attempt ricocheted off Swanson. That deflection dropped to the waiting foot of junior Carter Weary, who touched it in to make it a 3-2 game with 24 minutes left.

“That 20 minutes in the second half, it felt good to be out there,” Klein said. “I don't think there was a person on the field that wasn't feeling it. Hopefully we can carry that into substate and play a full 80 minutes that way.”

Gilbert maintained its intensity and plotted its shots, but Des Moines Christian tightened up its defense through the final 20 minutes. The Lions found gold on their own corner kick opportunity with five and a half minutes left on a header from Blake Witty to strain a Tigers comeback.

With the postseason ahead of it, Gilbert is focused on putting its potential into action from the first tick of the clock to the last.

Everyone is in a do-or-die type of thing,” Jordison said. “You can throw out the quikstats and throw out all that stuff. It's really just mano a mano, who is going to come out and play their best game today.

“Sometimes you come out on top and sometimes you leave it a little short like today.”

Des Moines Christian 4, Gilbert 2

Des Moines Christian1 3 — 4

Gilbert0 2 — 2

Des Moines Christian — Ben Webster, 8'

Des Moines Christian — Curran Ingram, 47', assist Blake Witty

Des Moines Christian — Curran Ingram, 49'

Gilbert — Cael Klein, 54', assist Luke Campbell

Gilbert — Carter Weary, 57'

Des Moines Christian — Blake Witty, 75'

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